Why Do We Still Believe In Politicians?

Difference in opinions will always lead to a clash between personalities, but sometimes broadly agreeing on one aspect of a bigger problem can lead to an unknown sense of familiarity, even if your holistic agreements don’t match when broken down to simpler matters. Belief, as always, has remained controversial. There will always be someone to play the devil’s advocate to your true, refined tastes, and you can’t exactly begrudge them their belief, even if they only wish to contradict you not for the sake of letting you examine the uncouth aspects of what your belief delegates, but simply because they find amusement watching people scramble to find answers to questions they’ve never posed.

Now, there are people who deny climate change and global warming, those who still prefer capitalism over socialism and the mightiest of these kinds are those who still think that politicians are the answer to all of their problems; from the popular erectile dysfunction, to learning how to change their baby’s diapers when the wife isn’t around, only politicians can change the world. A minute of well-deserved silence for the last in the category, because if they have high expectations from politicians, is there really any use trying to convince them otherwise? Besides, who has the energy, especially in this heat?

Let’s make an example of Pakistan, as today’s entertainment. Not that the faux democracy that is practiced in the country hasn’t already done that, but bear with me. Let’s pull the façade off the faces of some of our popular political leaders. Let us take Mr. Imran Khan – or as we like to call him, Immy K, because we’re all so chummy – for an instance:

People of Pakistan must come out and vote tomorrow in this historic election. This is the first time in 4 decades the nation has a chance to defeat the entrenched status quo. Don’t miss this opportunity.

In the tweet mentioned above, Immy states that it is time to break free of the status quo. Exactly what evidence does he have to his name that proves he will break the ever-spinning wheel of the status quo, rather than refining it even further, and to appease the racist and fascist agenda of the country? We understand why so many people support him, but we don’t know why he none of his supporters seem to care about his agenda.

Immy did women a massive disservice by opposing the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Act, 2006. For those of you who are unaware let me summarize the act. It states that kidnapping, abducting, or subjecting women to illicit lust, or compelling them for marriage is a crime punishable by death, a twenty-five-year sentence, and fine. Selling women into prostitution or buying them, rape, all lead to a punishment of twenty-five years, death or a fine. In the case of minors, life imprisonment and death are the only options. These laws serve to protect women from being sexually violated, but Immy had decided that he will continue to treat women as second class citizens in his country.

Furthermore, he also rejected the Bill of Protection of Women Against Violence 2015, which in short “…declares physical violence, abusive language, stalking, cyber-crimes, sexual violence, psychological and emotional abuse against women a crime in Punjab, home to 60% of Pakistan’s population. Additionally, it creates a toll-free universal access number (UAN) to receive complaints while district protection committees will be established to investigate complaints filed by women. Centers will also be set up for reconciliation and resolution of disputes.”

Immy does not oppose the oppression of people in the country: he fully supports the blasphemy laws in place which have always taken the lives of people who dare to voice their thoughts, who truly stand against the status quo, or simply because of political or feudal reasons. Anyone who can justify the killing of innocents on the basis of religious disagreement, or simply because of some false allegations should not be allowed to run the country. These laws are why we can never progress, never evolve.

The next point is respect. We’ve all heard the man sneer the names of his political rivals. Yes, he had unmatched success on the field, but that was cricket. If Immy can’t differ between a carefree sports career and a political platform which will influence the entire nation, then I’m sorry, not sorry, but why are people still gunning for him to win the elections? He addresses the former Prime Minister as a thief, and mafia, and by his first name that he uses mockingly, how can he be expected to respect the people – and any who might disagree with him – when he can’t even diplomatically speak about his political rivals? Moreover, how many times has he turned up to House proceedings as MNA? A stunning total of 23 out of 533 times, which just proves my point. Immy has zero respect for democracy and democratic procedures. If made Prime Minister – a man in charge on a nation, with critical decisions – who’s to say he’ll respect that seat of power either?

Last but not least is the hypocrisy Immy is so fond of. He is at liberty to call other political leaders thief, yet he continues to exploit the resources of the province he is meant to serve. He has used a KP helicopter for his own private use, and not once, not twice but a total of 68 times. The expense of his toying around with provincial resources is about 2.2 million, so it’s rich that he can call PPP and PMLN thieves.

He keeps hyping the crowds with promises of “Naya Pakistan” [New Pakistan] as if he’ll wave his magic wand and everything will be alright. The more subtle – and yet, blown up and overused – of his slogans is, “Tabdeeli a nahi rahi, Tabdeeli a gayi hai,” translating to “Change isn’t on its way, Change has arrived!” Change isn’t necessarily for the best, it can be for the worst too. In Immy’s case, it’s probably going to ravage the country, since he’s busy being politically incorrect and displaying political tolerance and leniency to terrorists and extremists.

In the end, all of the politicians we’re surrounded by, lie. PPP hasn’t done anything but promote the feudal system in Sindh, which hasn’t seen any development. The leaders of PMLN are spending their days in jail, which is self-explanatory. They keep making futile promises that will never be fulfilled, lie right to our face, and ultimately ruin a country that has barely anything to salvage in the first place. Shouldn’t we take it upon ourselves to bring a positive change to the country, rather than relying on petty politics that turns people against each other?